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#### # #### # # #### #### ### ### # ### ### # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # ### ## ### #### # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # #### # #### # # #### # ### ### ##### ### ### Version 2.07 _______ (c) Copyright 1986,1990 ____|__ | (tm) Budget Software Company --| | |------------------- P. O. Box 12282 | ____|__ | Association of 12162 E. Mississippi Ave. | | |_| Shareware Aurora, CO 80012-3499 |__| o | Professionals -----| | |--------------------- (303) 695-9095 CompuServe 70033,643 |___|___| MEMBER DISK SPOOL II i ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Table of Contents =========================================================================== Shareware Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iii Revisions made since the latest publication of this User's Guide . . iv Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Getting Started Quickly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Configuring DISK SPOOL II . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 The Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 The Spooler and the De-spooler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Modes of Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Manual Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 The Spool File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Controlling the De-spooler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Stopping and Starting Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Controlling Where in the File to Begin Printing . . . . . . 5 Printing from Different Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Controlling the Output Port . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Auto Spool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 How to Enable Auto Spool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Spool File Print Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Spool File Attributes by Application . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Auto De-spool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 How to Enable Auto De-spool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Controlling the Auto De-spooler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 DISK SPOOL II Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Spooler Speed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 De-spooler Speed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Other Special Features of DISK SPOOL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Trouble Shooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 For Programmers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Notes for Windows 3.0 users . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 DISK SPOOL II ii ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- S H A R E W A R E C O N S I D E R A T I O N S You have obtained an un-registered version of DISK SPOOL II which is being marketed under the "shareware" concept. As such, it is a fully working version of the product, and the documentation is complete. You are encouraged to register with Budget Software Company. The fee is US$ 44. You may register by phone, by mail, or using Compuserve. If you register by phone or by Compuserve, please provide a Visa or Mastercard number, name, and expiration date. Address: Budget Software Company P.O. Box 12282 12162 E. Mississippi Ave. Aurora, CO 80012-3499 Phone: (303) 695-9095 Compuserve: 70033,643 By registering, you receive the following benefits: - A copy of the latest version of DISK SPOOL II. - Free technical support. Usually, the author will be providing the support. But in any case, your issue will be elevated to the author if your question cannot be answered by your first contact. - Periodic notification of upgrades and enhancements; along with the ability to upgrade at a nominal cost. - A printed copy of this manual. You are authorized to make as many copies of this un-registered version of the product as you would like, and to distribute them freely to individuals or onto bulletin boards. You must, however abide by this one simple rule ... that you always include with such distribution all of the files that you have received. Budget Software Company is a member of the Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP). ASP wants to make sure that the shareware principle works for you. If you are unable to resolve a shareware-related problem with an ASP member by contacting the member directly, ASP may be able to help. The ASP Ombudsman can help you resolve a dispute or problem with an ASP member, but does not provide technical support for members' products. Please write to the ASP Ombudsman at P.O. Box 5786, Bellevue, WA 98006 or send a Compuserve message via easyplex to ASP Ombudsman 70007,3536. DISK SPOOL II iii ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Revisions made since the publishing of the User's Guide ------------------------------------------------------- -- DISK SPOOL II and networks. Picture the following scenario: you've got two or more computers networked together and only one has a printer. The computer with the printer is sharing its disk space with the other computers. Every computer has a copy of DISK SPOOL II active, and the one or ones that don't have a printer are set up to place their spool files onto the disk drive of the computer where the printer is attached. Everything seems fine with this scenario, except that DISK SPOOL II on the computer having the printer attachted doesn't recognize the existence of files created by the other computers. This is where DISK SPOOL II's network feature comes in. The discussion below describes this feature. To activate it, key in !#d on the command line when you first initiate DISK SPOOL II into memory. Example: SP2 !#d. Note that AutoDespool mode must be active on all machines. Normally, the AutoSpooler only recognizes files that have been spooled on that same machine. It keeps an internal tables of files created, and then when a file is finished printing, it accesses that table in order to find another one to print. With the network feature enabled, in addition to this, the AutoSpooler reads the directory every so often to see if anything new has shown up. It looks for files having the prefix SP0xxx.SPL, where the x's are three digits, and the SPL is the same suffix as designated in SP2CFG. In this manner, files created by remote computers' DISK SPOOL II, as long as they are placed in the correct directory on the computer where the printer is attached, will get printed. The duration of time between directory reads can be controlled from within the configuration program by setting the "flush delay" parameter to the desired interval in seconds. A somewhat low setting probably won't affect your computer's performance, since DOS usually keeps a copy of the directory in memory, and so actual reads to the disk drive itself are usually not necessary. It can happen, if the timing is correct, that different computers end up spooling to the same file name. In order to prevent this situation, key in the following command line parameter: !#x, where x is a digit from 0 to 9. If you key a 0, then the AutoSpooler will create files having names whose 4th digit starts with 0: SP0000.SPL, SP0001.SPL, etc. If you ky a 1, then the names will look like this: SP0100.SPL, SP0101.SPL, etc. DISK SPOOL II iv ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I. Introduction DISK SPOOL II is a program that fundamentally changes the manner in which printing takes place on your computer. Without DISK SPOOL II, whenever an application prints information, it sends it directly to the printer. If you don't have a printer attached to your computer, then you can't run the application. If your printer halts for whatever reason, then the application halts, too. More importantly, your application's execution speed is held back by the printer, regardless of how fast your computer is, or how well designed the application is. With DISK SPOOL II, your applications do not have to contend directly with the printer, since DISK SPOOL II sits in the background and intercepts your printer data, re-routing it to a disk file. Two benefits are immediately derived from this: A disk file doesn't jam, and you don't have to worry about its ribbon, so you know that your application will run to completion. Secondly, even the fastest printers cannot process data as quickly as a disk drive. So, your applications finish sooner, and you are able to do more work in less time. But what good is the data out in a disk file? Here is where the second main part of DISK SPOOL II comes into play. With your data safely out on disk, and while you are busy performing other tasks on your computer, DISK SPOOL II works behind the scenes to send the data from the disk file to the printer. How is it possible for the computer to be doing two things at the same time? The answer is that your computer has a generous supply of excess processing cycles on its hands, and DISK SPOOL II merely puts these cycles to work. The computer isn't really doing two things at once, it just looks like it is. You may be asking yourself why the concepts described above have not been made part of your computer's operating system by the manufacturers, since the time savings is apparently so dramatic and so universal. The answer is that personal computers are following the same evolutionary path that mainframes did several decades ago. Just like mainframes, the first operating system (and the one we are still using today) was not designed to be able to handle multi-tasking easily. It is a sure thing that the new operating systems being developed for the PC, just like the second generation of mainframes, will have spooling environment capabilities built in. In the meantime, DISK SPOOL II enables you to tap into this kind of operating power right now on your present PC. Note: there are four versions of DISK SPOOL II included on your diskette: SP2.COM, SP2S.COM, SP2SS.COM, and SP2SSS.COM. Each version contains fewer features, but also requires less memory to run. The documentation that follows descibes the full-featured version SP2.COM. For a detailed description of which features are removed from each of the other versions, refer to the section entitled Other Special Features of DISK SPOOL II. DISK SPOOL II 1 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- II. Getting Started Quickly Getting DISK SPOOL II to start working for you is as simple as keying in the program name SP2, and pressing the Enter key. DISK SPOOL II has been pre-configured so that it will spool data to a file called SPO.SPL in the root directory of drive C:, and it will print to port LPT1. If you want the Spool File to reside on a different drive, you could go into the configuration program (SP2CFG) and make a change, but for now, the easiest way is to just key in a drive letter. Example: sp2 d. If your printer is attached to a COM port, again, you could go into SP2CFG, but to keep things simple for now, just key in a k. Example: sp2 dk overrides the default drive and port. That's all there is to it. Now, if you want to experiment with the pop-up menu, tap the Alt-Left Shift keys simultaneously. The menu is straightforward, and there is context-sensitive help text available at every tier, so you should be able to get right into the swing of things quite quickly. There is only one thing that some people will have to do differently than before. If you want to print a DOS file, don't use the PRINT command supplied with DOS, and don't do a COPY filespec LPT1, or TYPE filespec > PRN, or the like. Rather, use the SP2PRT command supplied along with DISK SPOOL II. Simply key SP2PRT followed by the file name. The SP2PRT command is many times faster than its DOS counterparts, and also, by the way, works fine even if DISK SPOOL II is not loaded. Why don't you try DISK SPOOL II out right now, and see how quickly it spools this document? Just load DISK SPOOL II by keying in SP2, and then key in: sp2prt sp2.doc. (Incidentally, if you would like to observe how dramatically DISK SPOOL II saves you time, there is a demo program included on your diskette that you should run called SP2DEMO. To run it, make your default directory the one where your DISK SPOOL II files reside, and then key in SP2DEMO. Then follow the instructions. III. Configuring DISK SPOOL II Your diskette contains a program called SP2CFG which is used to configure DISK SPOOL II. Note that any settings made do not take affect until the time DISK SPOOL II is next initiated into memory. This program is very easy to use. You merely highlight the configuration item using the arrow keys, and press Enter to change the value. This program is also a very good tool for learning about DISK SPOOL II, since each configuration item is described in detail at the bottom of the display. DISK SPOOL II 2 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- IV. The Menu DISK SPOOL II is a memory resident program whose functions can be controlled by means of a pop-up menu. This means that you can be in the middle of any application and access DISK SPOOL II's menu by simply pressing the two "hot keys". DISK SPOOL II comes pre-configured with the Alt and Left Shift keys as the "hot keys". You may, however, configure any key combination that you desire. The menu style is the popular Lotus-style "single tier" menu. The top row of the menu displays several keywords, each of which represents a menu selection. You select a menu option either by positioning the menu bar over your selection, or by tapping the first letter of the keyword. The second row of the menu gives a short description of the menu option currently being highlighted by the menu bar. Often, one menu selection leads to another menu tier. You may back up a tier by pressing the Esc key. As you become familiar with DISK SPOOL II, you will quickly learn the letter sequences needed to perform a desired function. V. The Spooler and the De-spooler Before describing in detail all of the various features of DISK SPOOL II, a short introduction is in order of its two main components: The Spooler's job is to intercept printer data and re-direct it to a disk file. The De-spooler's job is to work in the background sending the contents of the file to the printer. By means of the pop-up menu, you have the ability to enable and/or disable both components. When the Spooler is enabled, it does its job of spooling printer data out to disk. When disabled, printer output goes directly to the printer, just as if DISK SPOOL II were not in memory at all. When the De-spooler is enabled, it is busy sending the contents of a disk file out to the printer. When it is disabled, then no such background printing takes place. Having the ability to control when printer output actually gets printed is one of the most attractive features of DISK SPOOL II. One of the attributes of the Spooler is which port or ports it is intercepting. Most computer applications are designed to send printer output to LPT1; and as such, DISK SPOOL II comes pre-configured to only intercept printer output that is being sent to LPT1. However, DISK SPOOL II can be configured so that it intercepts output being sent to any of the four standard ports: LPT1, LPT2, COM1, and COM2. And you may specify any multiple combination of the four. You may also change your settings on the fly from within the pop-up menu. DISK SPOOL II 3 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- An additional powerful feature of DISK SPOOL II is the ability to spool data being sent to your computer from an external source. This function takes place in the background, and it doesn't interfere with any spooling/despooling activities that are taking place. If you enable this function (by designating that the Spooler is to spool COM1I or COM2I), then any data sent from the outside to COM1 and/or COM2 is stored in files MONCOM1 and MONCOM2, respectively. One of the attributes of the De-spooler is the port to which it is sending data. DISK SPOOL II gives you complete control over which port receives the spooled data. VI. Modes of Operation There are three most basic modes of operation with DISK SPOOL II. A. Manual Mode 1. Introduction In Manual Mode, data is spooled to a single file, and continues to so unless you manually designate a different file. Similarly, data is de-spooled from a single file, and continues to do so unless you manually designate a different file. 2. The Spool File DISK SPOOL II comes pre-configured so that when it is first loaded into memory, it will look for a file called SPO.SPL in the root directory on drive c:. If it does not find such a file, then it creates one. It then "attaches" the Spooler and the De-spooler to this file. This means that spooled data will go to that file, and the De-spooler will print the contents of that file. You may configure DISK SPOOL II to use any file, directory, or disk drive you wish. You can even specify different files for the Spooler and the De-spooler. And, these designations can be changed on the fly using the pop-up menu. (One interesting setting is to leave the drive and the path designations blank. Then, as you change directories, and when data is spooled, DISK SPOOL II will create a new spool file in the current directory. In this manner, all your spreadsheet printouts could be found in one directory, all your word processing printouts in another, and so forth.) When the Spool File is empty, it only takes up 33 bytes on your disk or diskette. It grows as data is spooled into it. DISK SPOOL II 4 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- There are three ways in which data is purged from the Spool File: a. Clearing it manually If the file you wish to clear is the one currently attached to the Spooler, then you can take the (F)iles (C)lear (S)pooler menu sequence. And similary, if the file is currently attached to the De-spooler, then the (F)iles (C)lear (D)e-spooler does the job. Also, if you take the (F)iles (L)ist menu sequence, you are presented with a display of files, and you can delete any one of them by keying a '9' in the option field. (Note: you can also delete the file by using DOS' DEL or ERASE commands. Don't worry about deleting the current Spool File, since DISK SPOOL II will automatically re-create the file if it needs to.) b. When DISK SPOOL II is initiated into memory DISK SPOOL II may be configured so that when it is initiated into memory it checks the Spool File to see if it has been printed out completely; and if so, it clears it. This is the way DISK SPOOL II comes pre- configured to you. If you would rather keep spooled data on disk, and purge it manually, then change the configuration option Keep Spool File to YES. c. Resizing the file dynamically If you anticipate running low on disk space (perhaps because you are going to do quite a bit of printing between re-boots), and if you don't want to have to concern yourself with manually clearing or deleting files, then you should configure DISK SPOOL II's Dynamic Resize parameter to YES. With this setting, every time the De-Spooler reaches the end of a file, it deletes it off of disk. 3. Controlling the De-spooler a. Stopping and Starting Printing You have control of when printing takes place by enabling or disabling the De-spooler. b. Controlling where in the file to begin printing. i. At the beginning of the file ii. After the last fully printed document This method is handy if your printer jams. By starting the De-spooler after the last fully printed doucment, you pick up just at the right place. DISK SPOOL II 5 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- iii. At the end of the file This method of enabling the De-spooler means that despooling will start at the exact point where it last left off. If you suspended printing by disabling the De-spooler, and want to start back exactly where you left off, then use this method. iv. Using the 'P' option from within the file display You may start despooling at any place within the Spool File by displaying the file (using the (F)ile (D)isplay (D)e-spooler menu sequence), positioning the starting line to the top of the display, and pressing the 'p' key. The best sequence of events to take here is to disable the De-spooler, perform the above steps, and then enable the De-spooler "after the last fully printed document". c. Printing from Different Files You may "attach" the De-spooler to any spooled file. There are two ways to do this: - Take the (F)ile (A)ttach (D)espooler menu sequence and then key in the file name. - Take the (F)iles (L)ist menu sequence, and key a 3 next to the file you wish to print. Don't try to attach the De-spooler to a file other than one that was spooled. If you want to print another file, simply key in SP2PRT {filespec}. In this manner, the file will be spooled. This command operates very quickly, as all it does is append the file to the end of the Spool file. d. Controlling the Output Port. You designate a default output port in configuration. You may change this value by keying the menu sequence (V)alues (D)espoolport, and using the cursor movement keys to make a selection. B. Auto Spool 1. Introduction In Auto Spool Mode, a new spool file is created for each document spooled. To display a list of the files created, key the (F)iles (L)ist menu sequence. Note how this list shows you the file name on disk, the time and date it was created, its size, and the name of the program that printed the document. To print a file, key a 3 next to its name. This attaches the De-spooler to that file. DISK SPOOL II 6 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. How to Enable Auto Spool You can enable Auto Spool in two ways: either through configuration, or from within the pop-up menu by taking the menu sequence (S)pooling (A)utospool (E)nable. You may disable Auto Spool from within the pop-up menu as well. 3. Spool File Print Attributes By default, each file created by the Autospooler will have the following attributes: Copies - 1 Despool Port - The Despool Port as seen in the (V)alues (D)espoolport menu sequence. SAVE status - If the Dynamic Resize parameter as designated in the configuration program is set to YES, then the file will be deleted after printing. Otherwise, it will be saved. HOLD status - NO Description - The name of the program that printed the document. All of these values may be changed from within the (F)iles (L)ist display. Take option 5 for the file you wish to change. And take option 4 to place a file on HOLD. (Note: the HOLD status is really only meaningful when operating in Auto De-spool mode. See the description of this mode which follows for more details.) 4. Spool File Attributes by Application You may set up DISK SPOOL II so that different applications result in different spool file attributes. You may, for instance, want all your graphics applications to go to COM1 and be printed twice; while your spreadsheet printouts are to go to LPT1, and be saved. To tailor DISK SPOOL II in this manner, simply use your text editor to modify the SP2.DAT file. For example, the line: 123 COPIES:1 PORT:LPT1 SAVE:YES HOLD:YES would make it so any documents printed by application 123 would take on the print attributes as shown. C. Auto De-spool 1. Introduction In Auto De-spool mode, not only are seperate files created for each document, but the De-spooler automatically attaches itself from one file to the next, as files become available for printing. DISK SPOOL II 7 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. How to Enable Auto De-spool You can enable Auto De-spool in two ways: either through configuration, or from within the pop-up menu by taking the menu sequence (D)espooling (A)utodespool (E)nable. You may disable Auto De-spool from within the pop-up menu as well. Because Auto De-spooling goes hand-in-hand with Auto Spooling, whenever you enable Auto De-spool, DISK SPOOL II automatically enables Auto Spool, as well. 3. Controlling the Auto De-spooler The affect of enabling and disabling the De-spooler is the same whether it is in auto mode, or not. While the De-spooler is enabled, the way to prevent a file from being printed is by placing it on HOLD. You do this by keying a 4 next to the file name from within the (F)iles (L)ist display. (By the way, this is the display that first pops up when you are in Auto De-spool mode.) You may release a file for printing by keying a 6 next to the file name. VII. DISK SPOOL II Performance There are two aspects of performance: the speed of the Spooler (which means how fast your application program returns control back to you), and the speed of the De-spooler (which means how fast documents actually get printed out). Spooler Speed ------------- One of the most attractive features of spooling is that control is returned to you quicker than when printing goes directly to the printer. The quickness of the spooling function can be conrolled in three ways. 1. The size of the internal buffer As printing is taking place, DISK SPOOL II buffers characters in memory, and flushes them to disk after the buffer becomes close to being full. You can achieve substantial performance increases in this area (up to 100% faster) by increasing the size of this internal buffer. You do this by keying a command-line parameter when you first initiate DISK SPOOL II into memory. The parameter is an 'm' followed immediately (without spaces) by a digit from 0 to 9. Here is how it works: Each of the 4 versions of DISK SPOOL II takes up a certain amount of "base" memory; that is, the amount of memory required to perform its functions. The largest size that the spool buffer can be is 64k less this amount of "base" memory. When you utilize the 'm' command-line parameter, DISK SPOOL II divides this available buffer area by 10, and then, depending on the digit following the 'm', multiples of this figure are added to the buffer size. If you keyed in SP2 m9, then the entire available area is allocated for the spool buffer. DISK SPOOL II 8 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Whether or not you are spooling to a RAM disk When you spool to a file on a RAM drive, the spooler performance increases by a factor of approximately 100%. 3. Utilizing SP2PRT If you have a file that you simply want to send to the printer, send it by using the SP2PRT command. Simply key SP2PRT followed by the name of the file you wish to print. Using SP2PRT results in spooler performance in the order of three times quicker. De-spooler Speed ---------------- DISK SPOOL II has been engineered to take advantage of every free processing cycle for printing. Therefore, you should be experiencing no printing speed degradation whatsoever. However, if your foreground process is processor intensive, that is to say, a program is running that requires little user interface, then if your printing speed is not satisfactory you may experience a significant performance increase by fine tuning. The first thing to try in the fine tune process is setting the Despool Method configuraton option to Hardware Interrupts. If you are printing to a COM port, then Hardware Interrupts will give you just about as efficient a printing speed as is possible. With LPT ports, however, due to a flaw in the design of many of the LPT cards on the market today, Hardware Interrupts won't work at all, and in fact will result in extremely slow printing speed. If you have such an LPT card, then Budget Software Company can provide you with an adapter that corrects the problem. The cost is $15. (You may create your own adapter if you want. You need a female DB-25 connector for the printer side, and a male DB-25 connector for the computer side. Simply connect all wires straight through, except leave pin 10 on the printer end disconnected, and then connect pins 10 and 11 on the compter side.) If Hardware Interrupts doesn't work for you, then a certain amount of performance increase can be obtained by following these "fine tune" steps: Step 1 ------ Configure DISK SPOOL II to the Despool Method called "manual", and set OUTBYTES to 32 and RETRY to 1. Step 2 ------ Disable the De-spooler, and then spool out a very large document -- one that will take several minutes to printout. DISK SPOOL II 9 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Step 3 ------ Enable the De-spooler, and wait about 30 seconds in order to fill up any buffer your printing device may have. Step 4 ------ Take the pop-up menu sequence (L)earning (T)imingtests (E)nable (T)oggle (O)pen. A window should open at the bottom righthand portion of your display whose heading is: Bytes printed/second. Step 5 ------ Now comes the fun. While the De-spooler is still printing, key the pop-up menu sequence (V)alues (R)etry. Now depress your up-arrow, and observe how the Bytes printed/second value changes as the RETRY value is increased. At a certain point, the Bytes printed/second will take a dramatic increase. You have found the "threshold" value for RETRY. Add about 5 or 10 to this value, and this is the value you should use. You can now play with the OUTBYTES value in a similar fashion. You won't notice a "threshold" situation. Instead, your Bytes printed/second will increase very gradually as OUTBYTES increases. The rule here is to set OUTBYTES sufficiently high to obtain maximum printer speed, but not so high that you notice forground degradation. XIII. OTHER SPECIAL FEATURES OF DISK SPOOL II 1) There are four versions of DISK SPOOL II on your diskette. Each version takes up less and less memory, but has fewer and fewer features. SP2 - Fully functioning version. Takes up about 51k. SP2S - The Timing Test feature has been dropped, as well as the ability to spool data coming to your COM port from an external source. Approx 45k. SP2SS - The (F)iles (L)ist function has been dropped, and you don't have the ability to display the contents if a file from within the pop-up menu. Also, Auto Spool and Auto De-spool aren't available. 25k. SP2SSS - No pop-up menu. 14k. Note that even without the pop-up menu, this version gives you a substancial amount of control over your spooling activities. You merely depress and hold down the hot-keys and then press one of the following letters: E - (E)nable spooler D - (D)isable the spooler S - (S)uspend de-spooling R - (R)esume de-spooling where you left off B - Start the de-spooler back up at the (B)eginning of the spool file. DISK SPOOL II 10 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Note also that you can control SP2SSS (as well as the other modules) by means of keying in the program name followed by one or more command-line parameters. Note how several command-line parameters work both as load-time parameters as well as run-time. For example, if you want to clear the current spool file, you can key SP2 x. 2) Several DISK SPOOL II functions can be controlled by means of command line parameters. These parameters are keyed after keying SP2, they may be keyed in any order, and where letters are involved, uppercase or lower case is allowed. A detailed discussion of each command line parameter is discussed below. The following parameters do something only when DISK SPOOL II is first initiated into memory: L - Expand the spooler buffer to the largest possible value that fits in 64k. This has the benefit quicker spooling times, and hence your application returns control to you more quickly. The price you have to pay for this performance is that more of your computer's memory is taken up by DISK SPOOL II. M - Follow this parameter by a digit from 0 to 9. In this manner you can select various gradations in increasing the size of the spooler buffer. ! - This command line parameter is always followed immediately by a 1 or a 2, and then immediately by a character 1 through 9. Ex: !16 or !29 What this does is establish a larger buffer for the COM monitoring function; that is, the ability to spool data being sent to your COM port from an external source. The 1 or 2 designates which COM port, and the next digit designates a buffer size in 1k increments. The following parameter does something only when DISK SPOOL II is already in memory: T - Takes DISK SPOOL II out of memory. Note that when you take DISK SPOOL II out of memory, then any memory resident programs loaded after DISK SPOOL II was loaded are also removed. DISK SPOOL II 11 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The following parameters do something either if DISK SPOOL II is being initiated into memory for the first time, or if it is already in memory. K - spool and despool using a COM port P - spool and despool using an LPT port 1 - COM/LPT1 (ex: sp2 p1 directs DISK SPOOL II to spool and despool to LPT1) 2 - COM/LPT2 # - disable the Spooler and the De-spooler $ - enable the Spooler and the De-spooler % - enable the Spooler (note: if you include this command line parameter with a .BAT file, you must put two %'s back to back, otherwise DOS thinks it's dealing with a substitution variable) & - enable the De-spooler * - disable the De-spooler + - disable the Spooler X - clear the default spool file a,b,c,...,j - place the Spool File on this drive r - enable the "dynamic resize" (this is where when the De-spooler reaches the end of the file, it deletes it.) = - this parameter is always followed by a 1, a 2, a 3, or a 4. Example: sp2 =3 This is how you load and maintain multiple copies of DISK SPOOL II into memory. Generally, if you just key in SP2 followed by one or more command line parameters, DISK SPOOL II merely re-configures the version that is presently in memory. If you want to initiate a subsequent version, then you do so by including the = parameter. For example: - You key in SP2 p1 (initiates DISK SPOOL II into memory and spools/despools LPT1) - SP2 =2p2 (initiates another copy of DISK SPOOL II, this time spooling LPT2) - SP2 =1k1 (reconfigures the 1st loaded version to spool/despool COM1. For a more detailed discussion of using multiple copies of DISK SPOOL II in memory at the same time, refer to the discussion immediately below. DISK SPOOL II 12 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) You may have multiple copies of DISK SPOOL II in memory at the same time. In this way, you can have more than one printer working simultaneously, and still be working at your computer. There are several things to consider when loading multiple copies of DISK SPOOL II into memory. If you are going to want to utilize the pop-up menu, then you are going to want to configure different versions, each one with a different "hot-key" sequence. Say, for example, that you want to drive the LPT1 and the LPT2 ports simultaneously. You would go into SP2CFG and configure one of the SP2 versions to de-spool to LPT1, and you would define a certain "hot-key" sequence. You would also want to configure a unique default Spool File and De-spool File. Then you would make a copy of this program, calling it, say, SP2L1.COM. Then you would do the same thing to create an SP2L2.COM. The first version loaded into memory would be loaded by simply keying in the name of the program. To load a second version, you need to include the =2 command line parameter: SP2L2 =2. (Note: as you can see, it is not sufficient to simply load up differently named programs. You indicate a seperate version by keying the =2, =3, or =4 on the command line. You may also use an =1 parameter, but if you don't specify an = parameter then this amounts to the same thing as an =1.) Under this scenario, you would tap the one "hot-key" sequence to bring up the one program's pop-up menu, and the other "hot-key" sequence to bring up the other. Note that if you want to use the command line to make changes to a version that is already in memory, then you must us the = parameter to designate the one you are changing. For example, if you wanted to clear the Spool File of the 2nd loaded program using the command line, and given the above scenario, then you would key in SP2L2 =2x. 4) You may redirect the De-spooler's output to a device driver or to a disk file. To do this, key in SP2 @xxxxxxxx, where the x's represent the name of the device driver or the disk file (8 characters maximum, including an optional drive and path designation). Here is a good reason why you might want to redirect the De-spooler output to a disk file: DISK SPOOL II can be configured to utilize a compress algorithm in order to minimize the disk usage; and in fact this is how DISK SPOOL II comes pre-configured to you. However, with a compressed file, you can't port the file directly into a word processor, for instance. But, if you redirect the De-spooler output to a disk file, then this file will an exact image of the printed document. Note that if you redirect to a disk file, and that file already exists, then data is added to it. To cancel redirection and revert back to normal processing, key in SP2 @ with nothing following the @ sign. DISK SPOOL II 13 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5) You may designate that multiple copies be printed of a file. To do this, go into (F)iles (L)ist, and take the option to "change" the file. If after the copies are you want still more copies, then simply disable then re-enable the De-spooler; or if Auto De-spool is enabled, then just release the file. Note that DISK SPOOL II will not page-feed between copies unless you tell it to do so by configuring the Auto Form Feed option in SP2CFG. Often this is not necessary, since the application that you are running will usually send the necessary form feed instructions. 6) You may tailor the context-sensitive help file (SP2.HLP) to include your own helpful hints and information. To do so, simply go into your text editor, locate the menu tier, and add or change text to suit your needs. DISK SPOOL II uses the first letters of the menu keying sequence followed by a special control character in order to find the appropriate help text. Therefore, the only thing that you have to worry about is not changing these control lines. 7) DISK SPOOL II may be taken out of memory completely by keying in SP2 t. Note, however, that any memory-resident applications that have been loaded after DISK SPOOL II are taken out, too. IX. TROUBLE SHOOTING 1. Introduction Budget Software Company offers three forms of tech support to all registered users: Telephone: (303) 695-9095 CompuServe: 70033,643 Mail : P.O. Box 12282 12162 E. Mississippi Ave. Aurora, CO 80012 2. DISK SPOOL II "hangs" the computer. DISK SPOOL II is very robust, and has been designed to adhere to commonly used memory-resident protocols. As such, it is not likely that you are going to experience problems, even if you load DISK SPOOL II along with other memory-resident programs. If you do experience problems, the first thing to do is see if the same problem occurs in a "clean" environment; namely, one in which there are no other memory-resident programs installed. If you still experience the problem, then write or telephone for technical support. If the problem goes away, then start loading the other memory-resident programs one by one to try to find the one that is causing the conflict. If you find the program that is causing the conflict, then try loading it and DISK SPOOL II in a different order than you originally had. Quite often this resolves the problem. DISK SPOOL II 14 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. Normal keyboard operations seem to be fouled up when DISK SPOOL II is in memory. For example: for no reason whatever, the computer will go into Caps Lock state, and remain there. There is a "hidden" configuration option in SP2CFG which resolves this problem by causing a different type of keyboard handling mechanism to be utilized by DISK SPOOL II. To enable this alternate keyboard mechanism, first go into SP2CFG and bring up the configuration options display for the version you wish to configure. Then tap the 'k' key two times. Now exit, saving changes, and your the change will become effective starting with the next time you load DISK SPOOL II into memory. To revert back to the original keyboard handling mechanism, perform the same steps, only tap the 'j' key twice. There is one limitation to this alterate keyboard handling method: the only keys that are allowed as pop-up keys are the Left and Right Shift keys, the Alt key, and the Ctrl key. 4. I have enabled the COM Monitoring function (where data being sent to a COM port from an external source is spooled to disk in the background), and yet no spooling seems to be taking place. Keep in mind that DISK SPOOL II does not initialize the COM port protocols. You must do this yourself using a MODE command for instance. Another thing you should know is this: when you use the COM Monitoring function, DISK SPOOL II sets up the designated COM port(s) to allow for hardware interrupts. The MODE commmand disables these hardware interrupts. So, if you've already loaded DISK SPOOL II into memory, and you forgot to initialize your COM ports, and have to now use the MODE command, you must disable the Spooler, and then enable it in order that DISK SPOOL II re-set on the hardware interrupts. 5. When I disable the De-spooler, or put the currently printing file on HOLD, the printer continues to print out for a while. There are two reasons for this. Most printers have their own small data buffers. And even though DISK SPOOL II may no longer be sending data to the printer, nevertheless, the printer is still printing from its internal buffer. To overcome this, simply turn your printer off and then back on. Another cause for this is that if DISK SPOOL II is configured with Compress YES, then even after you have disabled the De-spooler, a certain amount of data is still sent to the printer. If you are concerned with being able to stop printing immediately, then configure Compress to NO. 6. I am de-spooling to a COM port, and I am experiencing data overruns. Try changing the COM Protocol configuration option to Xon/Xoff. 7. Is there any way to make the data in SP2.DAT take affect without to re-initiate DISK SPOOL II into memory? Yes, after changing SP2.DAT, merely pop-up the menu and take the (F)iles (D)isplay (S)pooler menu sequence. This will cause DISK SPOOL II to re-read SP2.DAT into memory the next time it needs to determine a spool file's attributes. DISK SPOOL II 15 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8. I spooled a document, and a part of it was chopped off. It never made it to the spool file. If you did a COPY <filespec> LPT1, or a TYPE <filespec> > PRN, or the like, then you should use the SP2PRT command instead. Merely key in SP2PRT <filespec>. You may also optionally designate a port with this command. Ex: SP2PRT myfile LPT1. If you don't designate a port, then LPT1 is the default. It also occurs that an application is designed in such a manner as to not allow DISK SPOOL II to flush its internal spool file buffer, and hence when the buffer fills up, subsequent data is lost. Fortunately, such programs are rare. The best way to combat this is to increase the size of the internal spool file buffer. That way, there is a better chance that the entire document will fit in the buffer, and when your application program ends, then DISK SPOOL II will be able to flush the buffer. With DISK SPOOL II's smallest module (SP2SSS.COM) you can get up to 50k of internal buffer. X. FOR PROGRAMMERS You may hook programatically into several DISK SPOOL II functions via a call to interrupt 1Ah. The following table describes how to do so. INPUT ------------- AH AL Returns/Function -- -- --------------------------------------- 0a0h n/a Upon return, if AH = 0b0h, then DISK SPOOL II is in memory, and furthermore: es = the location of the code segment bx = pointer to name of current Spool File si = pointer to current De-spool file. cl = 0, if De-spooler is disabled. 41h,if De-spooler is enabled. ch = 0, if Spooler is disabled. 41h, if Spooler is enabled. dl = 41h if De-spooler is currently active printing a file. 0 if De-spooler is standing by. 0d0h 1 Enables Spooler and De-spooler. 2 Enable Spooler, only. 3 Enable De-spooler at beginning of file. 4 Disable the De-spooler. 5 Disable De-spooler and Spooler. 6 Clear the Spool File. 8 Inhibit the Pop-Up menu. 9 Enable the Pop-Up menu. 0bh Disable the Spooler 0ch Start De-spooler after last successfully printed document. 0dh Start De-spooler at the exact point where it last left off. 0eh Pop-up the menu. 20h Clear file pointed to by the De-spooler. DISK SPOOL II 16 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- XI. Notes for Windows 3.0 users DISK SPOOL II has been tested and found to run successfully along with Windows 3.0. There are three main ways to run DISK SPOOL II along with Windows. 1. Establish a spooling environment for all non-Windows applications. Load DISK SPOOL II before loading Windows. Whenever you open a non-Windows application, DISK SPOOL II will automatically spool printouts (according, of course, to the way that you've got DISK SPOOL II configured. Note that even in Regular or Standard mode, printing will still take place when you shift to a different window. 2. Establish a spooling environment for only certain non-Windows applications. Open a DOS command line Window, or open a non-Windows application via a .BAT file, and load DISK SPOOL II from within that window. Remember, however, that if you should terminate this window, then your copy of DISK SPOOL II also ends. 3. Establish a spooling environment for all applications, both non-Windows as well as Windows application. To hook DISK SPOOL II to Windows applications, simply indicate that your printer is attached to LPT1.OS2 or LPT2.OS2. Also, it is a good idea to enable the Print Manager. Then load DISK SPOOL II before loading Windows. XII. Problems encountered with Windows 3.0 1. If you have trouble getting reliable printouts, then configure DISK SPOOL II's Bios option to YES using SP2CFG. 2. Under certain conditions, in enhanced mode, DISK SPOOL II is not able to pop-up successfully within the window. You should maximize the window so that it takes up the entire display, and then pop-up DISK SPOOL II. 3. Trying to use DISK SPOOL II in conjuction with LPT1.OS2 in enhanced mode has been found to be rather unstable. Therefore, if you want to spool Windows applications' printouts, load Windows in regular or standard mode. DISK SPOOL II 17 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------